Regarding the kayak on one side vs "catch up" (or "FQS"😉 on the other. I've tried before to explain
what I THINK is going on...
e.g.
Search Result 1 From: RunnSwim ([email hidden]) Subject: Re: Video of Grant Hackett 1500m free
Sydney 2000 View: Complete Thread (10 articles) Original Format Newsgroups: rec.sport.swimming Date:
2001-01-23 18:08:31 PST
In article <[email hidden]>, "Sherman"
Quoted message said:Larry´s analysis sounds convincing, but Hackett seems to prove otherwise. I agree with Olivier,
Hackett does not have a *brisk* kick and he uses a long forward though. And yet, no question he
succeeds with it.
I remember you and Larry saying that long distance swimmers would kayak, and he is definitely not
kayaking. How would you explain that?
Just trying to catch up with old threads. This one was from pre-Christmas.
Firstly, a correction. I certainly never said long distance swimmers should/would "kayak."
Since studying the many "lopers" of the world in some detail (van den Hoogenband, Thorpe, et al,
and apparently Hackett - but see below), I now feel that the term "Kayak" is not very meaningful.
It describes the position of one arm relative to the other arm, and this is asymetrical in the case
of a loper. I described for van den Hoogenband how he "FQS's" on his incompletely extended left
elbow, while he "kayaks" on his completely extended right elbow...just the opposite of what one
would predict. But both the "FQSing" and the "kayaking" are artifacts of his asymetric stroke,
where he swims with a flop, flop...flop, flop...flop,flop rhythm, such that the time interval
between right hand entry to left hand entry is 1.5 fold greater than the interval from left hand
entry to right hand entry. The produces a paradoxical "kayak" relationship of one arm to the other
on the "long reach" side, with a paradoxical "FQS" relationship of one arm to the other on the
"short reach" side.
I don't have a videotape of Hackett and I've never seen Hackett swim in person, but I suspect
that it's the same (qualitatively) for Hackett, given that Hackett has been described by others
as a loper.
A more useful term than "kayaker" or "FQSer" is "non-locked elbow, non-glider" versus "locked elbow
glider" (which I earlier tried to call a "hitcher," though I dropped it whan Donal Fagan objected to
the term).
What I said was that elite sprinters are virtually all locked elbow gliders with very strong kicks.
Elite women distance swimmers are virtually all non-locked elbow , non-gliders with very weak kicks.
Lopers tend to be non-locked elbow, non-glide on the weak side and locked elbow glide on the strong
side (hence the time asymetry right to left versus left to right). Lopers often tend to have an
asymetric kick, also...often kicking more prominently to the locked elbow side and more weakly to
the non-locked elbow side, which is what one would expect, given the need to conserve momentum
during a glide.
Erik Vendt is the best example of a true locked elbow glide, non-loping distance swimmer. He also
has, by far, I would say, the best kick of current world class distance swimmers. I've described how
Chris Thompson's kick tends to come and go during the course of a distance race, in parallel with
the degree to which he locked elbow glides versus doesn't locked elbow glide.
Other writers noted that Hackett's kick is more or less prominent during his race. I don't know, as
I don't have a tape of his entire race. If someone has a tape, try to determine if he has sort of a
start/stop kick, where it "starts" on the locked elbow glide side and "stops" on the non locked
elbow glide side. The trouble with the computer clips of a distance race is that there can be a
whole lot of stroke variation during the race...particularly in a loper.
- Larry Weisenthal
